Sunday, December 20, 2009

[Cookie 054] Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds

I see snow. Everywhere. It's ridiculous--totally, completely, absurdly over-the-top. And I'm not talking New York City snow; this is the results of a legit flurry.

This picture was on the front of the New York Times this morning--that's Central Park!

There's white (not brown) snow all over the sidewalks, piled on top of cars and bikes and fire hydrants, and all powdery and wonderful. Yesterday, when it just began to snow, my friends and I started to flip out when we saw the actual snowflakes on our jackets--so adorable and beautiful and amazing! But sure, it's really beautiful right now, but come Monday it will be disgusting and slushy and brown and icky. But until then, I can pretend that I'm living in a cozy cottage somewhere in the Alps, with a German Shepherd litter of kittens by my side, a fire roaring, a record player playing this song (please listen), and the smell of these Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds wafting from the kitchen.

I think that these are really perfect winter cookies. Sure, they aren't spicey, gingerbready, or pepperminty or anything, but they have this great coziness in their flavor. Maybe it's because they are shortbread and are buttery and rich, which always brings to my mind cold winters; or maybe its because when they are in the oven the house smells completely divine and like hot chocolate; or maybe its because I got to use my tooth-shaped cookie cutter which I got for my birthday exactly one year ago. It could be any of those reasons.

The recipe is dead easy, like most shortbread recipes, and even drizzling the melted white chocolate is super simple. I tried to decorate the first cookie, and failed miserably because I am absolutely awful at cookie decorating, but it was really easy to drizzle back and forth on top of the rest of the cookies and make them look totally professional. Unfortunately, the next day the white chocolate started to detach itself from the surface of the cookies, but hopefully you'll only be concerned with eating the cookies at this point.

Now, if you want my honest and harsh opinion, I thought these were a tad on the boring side. They taste great and look great, but they are just chocolate shortbread. If you like rich chocolate cookies, make these straight away, but don't expect anything shocking or unusual. That's not a bad thing though--I'll take shocking and unusual snow storms any day over traditional, albeit a little boring, chocolate shortbread. Wait no, I'll take them both. Simultaneously. Thanks.

Anyway, stay warm East Coasters! And I'll be sure to soak up some nice 68º degree sunshine for you once I get to L.A.! Oh, and Happy Holidays! If you're thinking of giving cookies as gifts this season (which is a great, awesome, totally fab idea), these cookies package up really nice:

Melt white chocolate, stirring, in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle chocolate over tops of cookies. Let set before serving, about 30 minutes. Cookies can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

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{End Results}Baking Difficultly: 2/5Ingredient Accessibility: 4/5Tastiness: 4/5Attractiveness: 4/5Is it worth it?: Yes! Just don't expect anything crazy or out of the ordinary...it's a very basic recipe.

{Pairings}Drink: MILK.

Song: Winter Wonder Land -- Animal CollectiveActivity: Knitting, crocheting, or cross-stitching by the fire. Or if that's too femme for you, you could always go outside and chop some fire wood while the white chocolate icing is setting. Or build me an ice fortress in Central Park--your choice.

Now What's All This About?

Ok so I had this great idea back in February 2009 to bake all the recipes in the Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook, and guess what--I FAILED!

I will make every recipe, all 175 of them, before I graduate.

I will make more recipes, maybe all of them, but now I live a life of leisure where I am not so hard on myself. Ya know, I'm really into the c'est-la-vie-live-and-let-live-YOLO-hang-in-there-one-day-at-a-time-started-from-the-bottom-now-we-here lifestyle now. So we'll see where this goes.

Oh, and yes I started this blog before that movie Julie & Julia came out, so don't try and be a smart-ass.

I'm very bad at responding to comments (read: I don't respond to comments at all), so if you have a question, or want to just strike up a conversation about anything at all (new recipes? wood carving? wiffle ball?) just shoot me an email: everylastcookie@gmail.com